iPhone's are some of the mot sought after devices in the world. Among the owners, hundreds of iPhone's are stolen every day. How many people actually get them back? A good percentage, but not nearly as many as they should. Apple offers iCloud, a system that serves you with Find My iPhone so that you can find your missing iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch on a Google Map. Unfortunately, they serve you with very minimal options and the ability to catch the thief is often impossible or difficult. Developer Itay, has come up with a handy, iOS 5-compatible jailbreak application that allows you to find your jailbroken iDevice after it has been stolen. The application is brand new and it's called iCaughtU Pro. This may sound familiar. Last month we reported on a jailbreak application known as iGotYa which helped a mother retrieve her stolen iPhone 4. These jailbreak applications that help you find your device are serious, and they do work. iGotYa is living proof.

iCaughtU Pro is compatible with iOS 5 and requires that your iDevice have a pass code. The application needs the pass code because when someone enters a wrong pass code, the application will take a picture of the user using the front-facing camera, then email the picture to you, along with the address/location of the device, time of false input, a Google Map, and a text message alert. You can even set a message to display on the stolen device. For example, "I caught you." This will certainly put a scare into the criminal. Not only can you have it happen via pass code, but you can have it happen when the device is powered down. This means that you will get to see the user and the location of the device as it is being powered down, before it's powered down. This way you can catch your thief even though the device was stolen and turned off (it takes a picture and shares the location right before shutting off). The settings can be seen below:

Then, when it's stolen, you get your email:

I highly recommend this tweak to anyone with a jailbroken iDevice. It just might save you from losing your precious iDevice forever. You will also have all of the information that you need to contact authorities because you will have a picture of the thief as well as their location. You can simply walk up to the police station and show them this information and they will be able to pursue the thief. Great job, Itay!

I talked to Itay via email and asked him a little about the application and him as a developer:

Anthony: What was it that made you come up with the idea to make this application?Itay: Here in Uruguay, security is a big problem and probably also in other places of the world, so the best way that come to my mind to avoid stolen devices is to take a picture of the thief.

Anthony: Are you planning any major updates to the application?Itay: I have some ideas for it like Video and Audio Recording or Alarms, I hope to be able to add all of them, but if users have more features to request I would be happy to receive them.

Anthony: What other things have you previously made for iDevices?Itay: I have made some other tweak and apps, not all of them released. My favorites are ZoomIsBack!, iRepo, SpyPhoto, FakePercent and AllMail. If you want to see all my released tweaks/apps you can enter: Itaysoft

Anthony: Are you working on anything special at this point in time?Itay: I have lot of ideas for other tweaks, some of them will some will thrive and some won't. Hopefully this Summer (for me and Southern Hemisphere or Winter for Northern Hemisphere) I will be able to release lots of tweaks.

The Giveaway!

Itay was generous enough to give away FIVE copies of iCaughtU Pro.

Here's how to win:

Follow me @BouchardAnthony
Follow ModMyi @modmyi
Retweet this article with your Cydia number in the tweet; if you do not have the Cydia number in your tweet, you will be disqualified from the drawing. Within the tweet you must also mention @BouchardAnthony so that I can easily see who has entered the drawing. If you don't mention me, you will also be disqualified. The tweet must include the following text, "I entered a contest to win iCaughtU Pro for iPhone!"

For some extra browning points in winning, leave a comment below on how iCaughtU Pro could be improved with your Twitter Handle included in the comment.

I don't know how anyone could be so irresponsible with a phone they spent so much money on. To allow it to be lost or stolen. But this is a good feature to have if having location on doesn't kill your battery that is.

ahem, a bit useless, as in the moment u take out SIM card, device has no connectivity, thus this application is rendered useless. i actually would not show a thief any warning messages, i would just trace the location and send it to the rightful owner with all the other data, including records of sound and picture...

Yawnzorz. Call me when a dev let's you password lock the ability to put the device in DFU. Find an iPhone? Power off. Remove SIM. Go home. Launch iTunes on computer. DFU. Restore.

What does this cute picture taking app do to prevent this? Nothing. No SIM? No location. No password attempt? No picture. $5 wasted, iPhone just as stolen as ever.

Want security? Code an app that prevents DFU without password. Also, make a website. Log in, report it lost/stolen, and no matter the SIM in the device, the phone constantly "phones home" GPS data, even if only on WiFi. Combine these features with the picture capture feature and the fact that VZW and Sprint ban ESN numbers and AT&T is cracking down heavily on ECID numbers will greatly improve the security.

I've disabled powering off on my iPhone via the switch altogether, so it's impossible to power it off w/o knowing the passcode. And Find My iPhone is active. I'm sure most people don't have the pentalobular screwdriver, so it should be safe for long enough to get it back. Still like the idea of these apps, as long as they aren't battery/ram hogs.

Yawnzorz. Call me when a dev let's you password lock the ability to put the device in DFU. Find an iPhone? Power off. Remove SIM. Go home. Launch iTunes on computer. DFU. Restore.

What does this cute picture taking app do to prevent this? Nothing. No SIM? No location. No password attempt? No picture. $5 wasted, iPhone just as stolen as ever.

Want security? Code an app that prevents DFU without password. Also, make a website. Log in, report it lost/stolen, and no matter the SIM in the device, the phone constantly "phones home" GPS data, even if only on WiFi. Combine these features with the picture capture feature and the fact that VZW and Sprint ban ESN numbers and AT&T is cracking down heavily on ECID numbers will greatly improve the security.

But, I suppose this works against the run of the mill crackhead.

You sound like an excellent iphone thief. To be fair, yeah someone could do all that, assuming that they know anything about iPhones and DFU mode. Assuming that they even know about Find my iPhone. Witch they probably dont. More then likely, when somebody either steals, or finds an iPhone, the first thing that they are going to try to do is unlock and rummage through it. And even if they are smart enough to shut down, eject sim card, and restore(technically they dont have to DFU restore), it doesnt hurt to have an extra layer of protection that apple does not offer. Plus the tweak takes a picture and logs the locations while they are shutting down.

I don't know how anyone could be so irresponsible with a phone they spent so much money on. To allow it to be lost or stolen. But this is a good feature to have if having location on doesn't kill your battery that is.

Accidents happen dude. Not everyone has their phone on their minds at all times. That's why these things happen...no need to be judgmental and call someone irresponsible for misplacing their phone.

ahem, a bit useless, as in the moment u take out SIM card, device has no connectivity, thus this application is rendered useless. i actually would not show a thief any warning messages, i would just trace the location and send it to the rightful owner with all the other data, including records of sound and picture...

This is a cool app. But whats the point of "Texting you an alert" when your phone is stolen? I guess to your like, brother/sister/boy/girlfriends phone?

And ya... You can get a location of the phone and go knock on their door, but thats way more awkward if they just say sorry I don't have it lol

And what about the GOOD SAMARITANS of the country? I've found about 4 iPhones so far int he last year and I've rummaged through it and called the last person they called and traced it back to the owner successfully. With this layer of protection, you pretty much lose that good human ability. They can't do anything about it until you call them, or show up at their house.